A Truly Depressing Visit to J.C. Penney

J.C. Penney, the storied if unglamorous retailer, is in trouble. Big trouble. Fourth-quarter earnings came out last Wednesday and they were terrible. The bad news starts with a quarterly loss of $427 million, but it doesn't end there. Comparable store sales — i.e., stores that were open this past quarter and also open in the same quarter of the previous year — fell by a mind-boggling 32 percent. Henry Blodget says it may have been the worst quarter posted by any retailer ever.